Wanderlust Tales : Road trip from Bangalore to Sripuram, Chennai

With our busy chaotic life, road trips are an excellent way of spending some quality time with family along with refreshing oneself.

Last month, we went on a road trip from Bangalore to Sripuram, which houses the famous golden Mahalakshmi temple. 

Picking few lines from Wikipedia:

"The temple is located on 100 acres of land and has been constructed by Vellore based Sri Narayani Peedam, headed by spiritual leader Sri Sakthi Amma also known as Narayani Amma. The temple with gold covering has intricate work done by artisans specializing in temple art using gold. Every single detail was manually created, including converting the gold chunks into gold foils and then mounting the foils on copper. Gold foil from 9 layers to 0 layers has been mounted on the etched copper plates. Every single detail in the temple art has significance from the Vedas."

Image from Google

We started from JP Nagar, Bangalore at around 09:30 and reached the temple by 1330. It took us approximately 4 hours to reach there in the wee hours of traffic. But yes this was without any break on the way.

It was a pleasant drive to the destination via the national highways.

The Google maps can be of great help to reach there. More or less it is a straight road once you hit the highway. And if you follow the hoardings right, you will not face many difficulties to reach there. Even the people are very helpful and will not hesitate to assist you with routes.

The main highlights for the roads, I would put it as below:

• Drive till the silk board signal and then take a right from there towards NH 7 
• Drive towards Electronic City - Hosur road 
• Continue till you see the Toll road. We collected toll passes to reach Krishnagiri and asked for both way tolls since it was cheaper. It was priced at Rs.40/-. 
• From there you must drive straight. You will cross around 2-3 flyovers and before the last flyover there will be a diversion, you need to drive left since there is construction work going on. Drive on from here, till you reach Krishnagiri. You will come across another toll plaza, priced at Rs.90/- for both ways. 
• From here it is a drive of 116 km straight on the highway. 
• You will come across two more tolls at Natranpalli priced at Rs.105/- for both ways and another one at Pallikandan which is Rs.110/- for both ways. 
• From the last toll gate at Pallikandan, after a drive of 2 km, you need to take a right for the diversion to Sripuram.Please keep a watch on the right, so as to not miss the diversion. Then drive straight along the directions given, and bang on you will be there. 

Rocky mountains

On the way, you will come across many petrol pumps, dhabas, food joints, engineering colleges, factories. So you can be tension free for food, water, petrol or car malfunctions.The roads are on either side are just filled with lots and lots of coconut trees plantation. 
You can feel the greenery throughout. It made our journey quite scenic. It was just an awesome drive through nature.
We also passed some local markets in the small cities which were bustling with people. You can find all hoardings of all Tamil movies in these local markets.
There were a lot of heavy vehicles plying on these roads. So everyone please drive safe, avoid rash driving and ensure everyone's safety. 😊

After the last diversion taken for reaching Sripuram, you will pass through a beautiful village.

It is a pure delight to witness it. The road is beautifully shadowed with trees. It is an awesome ride where you would see everything from the bullock carts to local buses moving at slow pace. The kachha Ghar, people sitting on the open veranda outside their houses gossiping away or just drying spices or clothes. There you would find everything ranging from small shops and tapris to farms, local men busy in their day to day chores.

Just awesome!! 💚

View from the parking lot

Once you reach the temple, you would see a huge gate. It is grand welcome for one and all. 😆

There is a provision to park your car, priced at Rs.50/-. No camera, phones are allowed inside so you would be required to deposit everything at the counter. Although not advisable, we left our belongings in the car itself.

The entrance itself gives you feel of the incredibility of the temple, which is spread over many acres of land.

As soon you enter the temple, they have chambers with a specified number of occupants allowed in each one. The devotees present in the room are released in batches for darshan, which keeps the crowd and rush at bay. They have a provision for special darshan priced at Rs.250/- per head, which is the quick darshan avoiding the queues and waiting in the rooms. They also have other denominations of darshan coupons of Rs.1000/-, Rs.1500/- and on.

From the chamber to the temple, it is a lovely walk of around 3 km. With the beautiful gardens around, the numerous lovely messages put up throughout the place, and the brilliant architecture, it was all a sight to catch. 
Don't be in a hurry for darshan, everyone gets a chance for darshan. You must enjoy every bit of the view during your walk till the temple.

Midway, if you happen to get tired they do have water, milk and prasad stalls, for you to have a quick bite. 
The seating arrangements throughout the way which is a great relief for elderly people, so they can cover the distance at their own convenience.

Once you are nearing the temple, you will be simply mesmerized by its beauty, architecture, structure. A golden temple in the middle of a small man-made pond. It is just a treat to your eyes. 
Just being there brings immense peace to your mind and soul.Feels heavenly. Beauty at its best! 💖

The thing that I disliked, only the people who had opted for the high values darshan coupons could go for darshan near the Thakur -they could sit, chant the mantras and spend some peaceful time in the temple - near the Thakur.
Others like us just got a chance for a quick darshan and had to take a detour.

On your way out, they have the provision of prasadam. They serve piping hot south Indian  - rice, sambhar, rasam, sabji. The Prasad is served on banana leaves which ensures cleanliness and hygiene.

It was a superb experience altogether. 

On our way back, with the onset of rains, it made our return all the more enthralling.

Fair
    

Bon Voyage!! 👋

Cheers to life!!

~Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step!

P.S.All the above photos have been clicked by me.